If you didn’t get your hands on a paper copy, you can now see August’s copy of The Spectre here. Feel free to distribute, copy print etc. If you want to get your (digital) hands on this month’s paper, then drop us an email, or pick one up in Colchester.
In the build-up the eviction of Dale Farm, it seems like the ‘local’ press in Essex (most of which is actually owned and run by Newsquest, just in case you had any illusions that your local paper was actually local and not tied to the interests of big business) has been running the same record of anti-traveller bias over and over. In recent
This charming piece of bigotry was found recently in a pub in the division covering Flintshire and Wrexham
weeks, it’s been difficult to look at one of these papers without seeing a story about locals who don’t want gypsies near them because feel ‘threatened’, travellers ‘illegally occupying land’, councils taking action to prevent caravans entering fields or some other article trying to make it seem as though everyone must hate travellers. And in case these stories weren’t bad enough, the comments sections on the online versions of these articles have been filled with the kind of vile racism usually reserved for BNP meetings behind closed doors. Many of those posting this crap refuse to admit that they are being racist in the first place – and for the record, yes, ‘pikey’ is a racial slur.
It seems that what’s happened here is that a certain kind of racism has become acceptable – through years of these kinds of stories appearing, the constant criminalisation of their way of life, attacks on them from every direction (police, parliament, property owners, tabloid press and even comedians making hi-larious ‘gypo’ jokes), travellers have become the group it’s ok to hate. Of course this is no accident. For decades, if not centuries, travellers, Roma and Nomads have all been hounded by governments and states – they’re refusal to give up their traditions and way of life has always bothered those who want to think they’re in charge of everything. If they can get people to dislike them through the use of every bit of propaganda they have, it just makes sweeping the nuisance away a whole lot easier.
Of course they’re not the first ‘outsider’ group to be dragged through the mud like this in order to justify a governments policy – how do you think segregation in the United States and Apartheid in South Africa were justified? All kinds of messages about how black people were lazy, unclean, un tidy, natural criminals, didn’t contribute to society, were intimidating etc. permeated the media. They were mocked, demonised
The Magyar Garda claim not to be fascists, just anti-gypsy...
and criminalised – just like travellers are today in this supposedly civilised society. And it’s not just here – anti-traveller hatred seems to be going through something of a
renaissance in Europe at the moment with violent attacks of Roma people in Italy and Eastern Europe becoming depressingly regular – perhaps we should just count ourselves lucky that we don’t have neo-Nazi groups like Hungary’s Magyar Garda over here. Yet.
The bottom line is that this is racism and like any racism, is not ok. Just because they can use anti-traveller slurs on TV and the press can print bigoted stories is no reason to think this is just normal can’t be resisted.
Camp Constant sets up today (August 27th) at Dale Farm to help prevent the huge, costly eviction of travellers. This eviction goes against the UN Declaration of Human Rights. See http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/ for more.
Jordan Valley-notes
During my stay in the Jordan valley, near Al-Auja, a construction site for Bedouins next to Jericho, there was a settlement that was 1.5 km away from the site. Around 500 settlers in the illegal settlement received funding from the Israeli State, free supply of water, swimming pool, the best irrigation system for crops, the most fertile land, the pumping of endless water from still remaining nearby-Palestinian land. The settlement was called Givat and it is one example of the 3000 settlements illegally installed in the Jordan Valley. Contrary to the advantages the settlers receive from the Israeli state, Palestinians and Bedouins in the zone have to live under the current 5% of the Land (Area A). Some of them having difficulty to farm their land, due to checkpoints, difficulty of permits and the added costs of travelling 2-3 km to access a water pump or well due to the illegal annexation of land by settlements, Area C. Israel has annexed 95% of the land and is still in the process of doing so, with the justification of generating a buffer zone in the borders with Jordan. There are more than 6000 settlers living in the Jordan Valley, which grow crops from stolen Palestinian land. The Jordan Valley Solidarity project is a revolutionary one, which recruits volunteers for construction of houses and wells in the entire area, including area C. Although faced with the threat of demolishment the project has created more than 30 houses equipped with a kitchen and a toilet in the construction site near Al-Auja, which I volunteered for with 3 other ISMers.
We were most of the time constructing houses made out of wooden planks, aluminium plates and earth and soil bricks. We worked mainly building the ceiling of the house, carving the wooden blocks with power saws, although this broke the first day I was there and we then had to use manual saws. The work was tedious and hard, we were working with two Palestinian workers, one of the age of 16, Yusuf, that was about to marry, and the other 24, Salem, whom had 3 children. They had already been a week labouring hard and knew perfectly how and what to do. On my second day they were fasting due to Ramadan and still managed to work half the day under a bombarding sun and under harsh labouring conditions. That same day we managed to finish the ceiling and fixated other carved wooden planks for the kitchen and toilet, which were installed outside the main house. We worked from early in the morning, 6:00 a.m. until 1.00 p.m. with small breaks in between. We had breaks to eat and drink, and slept, from 1.00 p.m. until 4 p.m., where the temperature rose to its highest peak (maybe 50 Celsius) until the afternoon where it decreased slightly and the humidity decreased. We then laboured from 4.00 pm until around 8.30, 9.00 p.m. While labouring we either sang “ Free Palestine” songs to gather strength and hope, drank tons of water and learnt languages such as Arabic and some Italian. In solidarity, one of my colleges, a volunteer from ISM, fasted with the Palestinian workers and solely drank water the entire day.
There was a house finely built next to the soon to be Bedouin houses with no furniture except mattresses, utensils to eat, cups, glasses, and a small storage box to keep drinks cold as long as possible. During the night we slept outside the building since it still kept its aromatic, high-pressure warmth of the day. The cooking of the food was highly improvised; we searched for wood among the old furniture of a nearby closed school. The Israeli army had closed the school years ago, the large rooms where classes were taught seemed old, dusty and filled with empty chairs. We grasped limbs of old chairs, tables that were lying around the building and added some small wooden sticks on the bonfire site to cook the noodles that the Palestinian coordinator had brought us. We slept facing the stars, although well aware that settlements, Israeli military posts surrounding the construction site and random “Jesh” (Israeli border police) patrols were being carried out during the night.
On the first day I arrived to the Jordan Valley, Emma had told me that the previous day a “Jesh” had arrived with around 5 Israeli soldiers in the middle of the night. They had interrogated Emma and some other ISM volunteers about their identity, their purpose and how they had arrived there. Fortunately, they had managed to dash arrest and possibly deportation from the border police, luckily there were no Palestinians at that time. In addition to that there were suspicions that Palestinian collaborators from a nearby electric generator station had called the closest Israeli army post to arrest us. They came the first day I was there asking the Palestinians questions about the construction site, the volunteers, the material and other silly questions. For that reason, we stayed up most of the night guarding well aware that the Jesh might come any minute.
Background:
In 1967 there were 300,000-320,000 Palestinians living in the Jordan Valley. Since the invasion of 1967 the figure had gone down to 53,000, 70% of whom live in the city of Jericho. Israel has taken over 95% of the Jordan Valley, which remains under civil and military control (area C). The first settlements were built here mainly because of its geopolitical importance; it remained a strategic military place and an economically rich area. Israel’s excuse for occupying the area is because of its use as a “buffer zone“, for protection from neighbouring Arab states.
The Jordan Valley remains an occupied land that has seen the illegal transfer of Palestinians from their land by either confiscating or weakening its infrastructure such as building settlers-only roads as well as invading and extending their settlements for usage of water resources, invading and taking over the most fertile land, and in the way demolishing many Palestinian homes.
In this way, Israel has consistently recreated its public imagination and its plan is to use the Jordan Valley for future political negotiations, to claim ownership and to extend their territory.
Every single day, settlements are constructed on confiscated land and as a consequence Palestinian families are being forced out, further dividing the remaining 5% under the Palestinian National Authority. They create checkpoints, which cut off people from each other, restrict and control the movement of Palestinians that have to go around settlements to gather vital resources, water being the most important of all. The Jordan Valley is another example of the irresponsibility, lack of accountability and a constant violation of human rights of the Israel state. And most importantly this represents the Israeli programme of wiping out the Palestinians, furthering the fragmentation of Palestine in tiny slots of land, surrounded by settlements that make the creation of a future contiguous and viable Palestinian state practically impossible.
The purpose of settlements:
1. Surround Palestinian villages thus preventing expansion and threatening their very existence, restrict movement, access to land.
2. Settlements are mainly located in hilltops and mountains and provide surveillance for the Israeli state, since all settlements have a watchtower, wall or fence, and barbed wire.
3. 11,000 settlers live in about 36 settlements in the Jordan valley as well as the many unrecognised settler tents by Israel. Needless to say, all settlements in the West bank are illegal under international law and represent a violation of the Geneva Convention. Furthermore they prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and make peace and justice impossible in the region.
4. Settlements are financed economically and supported openly by the State of Israel for expansion, demolishing Palestinian homes, confiscating land and evictions, which deny them from their basic human rights and dignity. Settler attacks, reinforcement of eviction notices and demolishment foment the well-known programme of Israel, to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians.
Land confiscation and control over the land
The Jordan Valley is mostly under Israeli military and civil control, area C, which is mainly composed of 95% of the area. Palestinians have the right to build in 20 km 2 in area A in the Jordan Valley. Palestinians living in the Jordan Valley face severe restrictions on building and development, permits are needed to build and if they do manage to build, many obstacles arise, they are soon given demolition orders as Israel deems any new Palestinian construction or renovation to be illegal. They even target tents, wells, reservoir, clinics, and cultivated areas, which means that there are inadequate services and no local industry development can arise. The destruction of Palestinian infrastructure is a violation of international law.
On the other hand, settlers are given all facilities to undertake construction and further expansion. Settlers are granted new building licenses and are provided with water, fertile land and all resources needed.
Movement and access restrictions
There are four major checkpoints and hundreds of kilometres of roads closed to Palestinian vehicles. Road closures and temporary checkpoints are lived everyday by Palestinians. The intentions of such actions are to cut off and restrict farmer’s access to their land and villages. Furthermore, the Israeli State restricts movement of Palestinians from leaving their villages to expand and construct settlements freely, including settler’s only roads. Moreover, forcing and preventing Palestinians from leaving their villages to seek work, access their land and transport resources from different sites.
Even if permits are granted the ability of one man working on his land is practically impossible when faced with so many obstacles and threats such as settler attacks, brutality of the army, scarcity of resources; water, infertile land, ineffective irrigation and adding to that ecological problems; drought and desertification.
Hamra and Tayaseen villages are two primary examples of movement and access restrictions. Palestinians are not allowed to be there if they are not residents or even if they do own the land, but are living somewhere else.
These closures and checkpoints breach freedom of movement, a right that is protected in several international human rights law instruments, the 4th Geneva conventions and the International Convenant on civil and political rights. Road closures impact on the ability to access other rights such as the right to work, education, adequate standard of living, health and protection of family life.
Bedouins;
15,000 Bedouins live in the Jordan Valley, many of whom were desert dwellers.
Bedouins were a semi nomadic people who traded and lived in tents made of goat hair and moved across land rearing livestock and producing goods such as cheese and milk. It was dependent on areas rich in natural resources with water and grazing land, migrating to hillside in the summer and back down to the valleys in the winter. Today they are marginalised in both fronts, including the Palestinian society, they live in crammed plastic and metal tents without electricity, water and sewage facilities. Poverty among the Bedouins has risen due to the restrictions imposed by the illegal military occupation. They live under constant threat from being force out and are harassed on a daily basis by settlers and the IOF (Israeli occupation forces).
To counter the illegal occupation and the demolishment of Palestinian houses, the people of the Jordan Valley have organised into popular committees to establish plans of actions and work with NGO’s, the Jordan Valley solidarity campaign, Ma’an development Centre as well as various international solidarity groups. The former NGO’s, solidarity groups, development centres provide practical support and services in four areas; national and international advocacy, to draw attention to overlooked essential services.
They have all been key in maintaining and resisting the expansion of Israel by taking direct action, constructing houses for Palestinians and Bedouins, staging demonstrations, planting crops, building schools, etc. One has to emphasise that merely by existing, Palestinians are resisting the Israeli programme of ethnic cleansing. The resounding words of Edward Said “To exist is to resist” are most applicable here, emphasising the importance of remaining in the Jordan Valley to resist Israel’s aim of cleansing the Palestinians; measures closely resembling apartheid, colonialism and forced displacement.
Earlier this week, a 20 year old man was arrested under the Serious Crime Act (2007) for attempting to organise a 1000 person water fight in Colchester. This
Colchester Town Centre is a Fun Free Zone!
leads us at The Spectre to one of two conclusions… either water pistols have been re-branded as offensive
weapons (in which case you better get on the phone and report those kids in the garden next door!) or that Colchester has become a town where fun just isn’t allowed unless you’re paying for it. If this was SchNews, we’d probably have to lable this as our crap arrest of the week!
Any more info on this story greatly appreciated – do you know who was organising the event? Were you planning to attend? If so, get in touch, we’d like to talk!
The IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission) announced yesterday the findings of it’s investigation into the shooting of Mark Duggan on Thursday 4th of August and they make some disturbing reading. It turns out that the hand gun found at the scene that supposedly belonged to Duggan had not been fired and that the bullet lodged in the injured police officer’s radio was a ‘jacketed round’ – ie, one that came from an MPS Heckler and Koch MP5, the gun the police used to kill Duggan.
In any normal situation, this should be huge news – the police shoot a man to death in public in broad daylight, lie that he fired at them first to justify it and then refuse to talk to the community, sparking a riot. It’s appalling. But of course, the nature of these riots has changed – they’re no longer about Duggan and the police, they’re about what happens when a society that has had a dog-eat-dog consumerist philosophy shoved down it’s throat takes away all safety nets and opportunities from young people, destroys all sense of community and solidarity and leaves force as the only deterrent. We have seen ugly, indefensible things happen over the last few day, but don’t let the mainstream media’s obsession with witch hunts and damage done the economy distract you from the fact – state brutality, years of it both physical and not, started this.
